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Night10194 posted:Note the Clanners brought their techs with them, too. I thought they only brought in a handful of techs? I would imagine the bare minimum of maintenance is at least one dedicated technician per mech? E: Latest Story section posted:A trio of tired-looking Clanners with dark rings under their eyes sat on the Victor’s left shoulder... Possibly there were other techs, but this surrender is most likely a net burden on the limited maintenance assets directly controlled by the Demon Hawks. Good think they've got all that support from Teledahn fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 05:26
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Teledahn posted:I thought they only brought in a handful of techs? 1 tech+4 astechs for ~60-90 minutes of work per day is enough to cover maintenance of a mech, iirc. The exact amount of time depends on weight class. And yeah they only brought a few techs but that's still gonna be useful for the Demon Hawks if they get them as well, since maintaining clan equipment is a right bitch for IS techies.
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Sep 11, 2016 05:31
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Fortunately, the Demon Hawks brought an excessive number of techs with them, so a few of them can act as astechs to the Clanners until they get up to speed.
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Sep 11, 2016 05:36
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Shoeless posted:1 tech+4 astechs for ~60-90 minutes of work per day is enough to cover maintenance of a mech, iirc. The exact amount of time depends on weight class. And yeah they only brought a few techs but that's still gonna be useful for the Demon Hawks if they get them as well, since maintaining clan equipment is a right bitch for IS techies. 5-7.5 hours of work, per day, per machine, just for regular maintenance. Combat support and munition resupply, nevermind repairs or replacement of damaged components/limbs etc is probably an order of magnitude more. Good thing we hired those techs.
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Sep 11, 2016 05:42
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Teledahn posted:5-7.5 hours of work, per day, per machine, just for regular maintenance. Combat support and munition resupply, nevermind repairs or replacement of damaged components/limbs etc is probably an order of magnitude more. Where does it say that it's 5-7.5 hours of work per day per machine? Also munitions resupply is super easy, it takes 15 minutes and is automatically successful. Actual repairs and replacement take hours, sure, but I don't remember maintenance being hours per mech per day. Did you accidentally add an extra 0 to the number of minutes?
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Sep 11, 2016 06:16
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Shoeless posted:Where does it say that it's 5-7.5 hours of work per day per machine? ... Shoeless posted:1 tech+4 astechs for ~60-90 minutes of work per day is enough to cover maintenance of a mech, iirc. ... 5 people for 60-90 minutes is 5-7.5 person-hours of work. Not looking up anything in Battletech-RPG sourcebooks or anything, just imagining the potential maintenance load of these (also imaginary) science-fantasy warmachines. I'm sure there's some famous quote or other about soldiers winning battles, but logistic and supply officers winning wars. Or the equivalent. Given in Battletech it's all space-eighties and the like I imagine there's a lot of hand-waving going on in places. (Or authors just not being very clever to begin with. Wasn't the concept of 'a collection of jumpships running relay' touted as an incredibly potent strategic advantage?) I much prefer PTN's work, but the absurd nonsensical stares the 'Let's Read' segments have evoked are amusing. Any plan to do another novel like that anytime soon? Teledahn fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 07:20
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Teledahn posted:5 people for 60-90 minutes is 5-7.5 person-hours of work. Not looking up anything in Battletech-RPG sourcebooks or anything, just imagining the potential maintenance load of these (also imaginary) science-fantasy warmachines. Astechs are a dime a dozen, though, so the only man-hours that matter are the actual tech. The rest of it is "Hold that there. Yeah, good, just like that. Don't move. You, go get me that TIG welder."
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Sep 11, 2016 07:38
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Teledahn posted:5 people for 60-90 minutes is 5-7.5 person-hours of work. Not looking up anything in Battletech-RPG sourcebooks or anything, just imagining the potential maintenance load of these (also imaginary) science-fantasy warmachines. Teledahn posted:I'm sure there's some famous quote or other about soldiers winning battles, but logistic and supply officers winning wars. Or the equivalent. Given in Battletech it's all space-eighties and the like I imagine there's a lot of hand-waving going on in places.
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Sep 11, 2016 08:22
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It was also the ENTIRE SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATIONS before the HPG was invented. Like, through the entire Age of War until the late Star League. I would say most of the most important documents in the history of the Inner Sphere were distributed that way. The thing Hanse did that people didn't do before was commandeer all civilian JumpShips and destroy his economy to do it. Probably starved a fair number of people and certainly put an end to the literacy programs he was trying to run. Also, re: astechs, most Mechwarriors are trained as astechs and fill many of those roles themselves. It's real loving easy to be one. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 10:35
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Defiance Industries posted:Also, re: astechs, most Mechwarriors are trained as astechs and fill many of those roles themselves. It's real loving easy to be one. This. Part of your day as a mechwarrior is generally spent helping out your technician and other astechs. Gets the work done faster, and you get to know your tech crew- and your machine- better. Lots of benefits to it.
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Sep 11, 2016 11:07
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That's not that much. I dread to think what the hourly cost for a mech on mission works out as once repairs are factored in, but current military aircraft needing 20+ man hours maintenance per hour flown and costing tens of thousand in general wear and tear isn't unusual.
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Sep 11, 2016 12:13
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apostateCourier posted:This. Part of your day as a mechwarrior is generally spent helping out your technician and other astechs. Gets the work done faster, and you get to know your tech crew- and your machine- better. Lots of benefits to it. Being on good terms with your techs probably also helps issues like activating MASC and half your mech's legs walking off without you.
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Sep 11, 2016 14:07
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goatface posted:That's not that much. I dread to think what the hourly cost for a mech on mission works out as once repairs are factored in, but current military aircraft needing 20+ man hours maintenance per hour flown and costing tens of thousand in general wear and tear isn't unusual. It kinda makes sense too. Since in Battletech tech started getting more durable rather than better in other ways, you don't need to spend as much time maintaining it either. Probably this wasn't intentional and was just there so that merc companies don't get bogged down in dozens upon dozens of techs to get in the way of having your knight in shining battlemech fantasy, but it's serendipitous. Defiance Industries posted:It was also the ENTIRE SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATIONS before the HPG was invented. Like, through the entire Age of War until the late Star League. I would say most of the most important documents in the history of the Inner Sphere were distributed that way. It's not like people in the Outback matter, right?
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Sep 11, 2016 14:14
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Shoeless posted:It kinda makes sense too. Since in Battletech tech started getting more durable rather than better in other ways, you don't need to spend as much time maintaining it either. Probably this wasn't intentional and was just there so that merc companies don't get bogged down in dozens upon dozens of techs to get in the way of having your knight in shining battlemech fantasy, but it's serendipitous. Might have been intentional, since the game was originally set in a technological decline. Any delicate Star League-era mech that required hugely intensive maintenance was probably scrapped between the fifth nuclear exchange and the third round of war crimes in the First Succession War simply because the Inner Sphere no longer had the means. A lot of the 3025 mech manual would talk about how the lostech windshield wipers on a certain mech were replaced by more durable (but less advanced and effective) Brand X, or that there just weren't spares for certain mechs in various militaries so existing mechs were broken down for parts. Whenever the IS downgraded a mech design, they probably weren't only doing it because "we can't build Z lasers anymore", but because the equipment was ill-suited to the tempo and conditions of the Successor State period. Servicio en Espanol fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 16:00
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Shoeless posted:Oh. Well yeah, total man-hours. But each tech/astech has 8 hours/480 minutes they can work per day apiece. They must have a hell of a union to get away with that in war time.
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Sep 11, 2016 16:11
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Defiance Industries posted:The thing Hanse did that people didn't do before was commandeer all civilian JumpShips and destroy his economy to do it. Probably starved a fair number of people and certainly put an end to the literacy programs he was trying to run. You don't have to worry about destroying your economy if you just married into a better one! 
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Sep 11, 2016 16:20
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Great Beer posted:They must have a hell of a union to get away with that in war time. Unions will never be lostech. Battletech is a hopeful, well rested universe. 
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Sep 11, 2016 17:00
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hooman posted:Being on good terms with your techs probably also helps issues like activating MASC and half your mech's legs walking off without you. That is one of the benefits, yes.
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Sep 11, 2016 17:20
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Great Beer posted:They must have a hell of a union to get away with that in war time. Servicio en Espanol posted:Might have been intentional, since the game was originally set in a technological decline. Any delicate Star League-era mech that required hugely intensive maintenance was probably scrapped between the fifth nuclear exchange and the third round of war crimes in the First Succession War simply because the Inner Sphere no longer had the means. A lot of the 3025 mech manual would talk about how the lostech windshield wipers on a certain mech were replaced by more durable (but less advanced and effective) Brand X, or that there just weren't spares for certain mechs in various militaries so existing mechs were broken down for parts. Whenever the IS downgraded a mech design, they probably weren't only doing it because "we can't build Z lasers anymore", but because the equipment was ill-suited to the tempo and conditions of the Successor State period.
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Sep 11, 2016 17:23
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goatface posted:That's not that much. I dread to think what the hourly cost for a mech on mission works out as once repairs are factored in, but current military aircraft needing 20+ man hours maintenance per hour flown and costing tens of thousand in general wear and tear isn't unusual. Don't worry about that. BattleMechs can sit buried in desert sand for 300 years and can still be made to work after a little maintenance. The way I see it, they're probably incredibly easy to mothball and then you just need to break out the leaf blower to blow the dust out of the fusion engine. As long as you're not in Draconis Combine territory, anyway--then you'll need several Combat Assault Technicians (or cats) to clean out all the mice that chewed up all the wiring. Funny story though, RAW, a Leopard Dropship carrying nothing but cargo can't actually make enough money on a trip to pay off its own bank loans (much less pay the crew, etc). I doubt there's a Leopard out there that isn't directly owned by a house military.
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Sep 11, 2016 17:48
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PoptartsNinja posted:Funny story though, RAW, a Leopard Dropship carrying nothing but cargo can't actually make enough money on a trip to pay off its own bank loans (much less pay the crew, etc). I doubt there's a Leopard out there that isn't directly owned by a house military. Isn't the Leopard supposed to be a military raiding dropship though? It makes sense that it wouldn't do so well as a merchant vessel.
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Sep 11, 2016 18:05
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PoptartsNinja posted:Don't worry about that. BattleMechs can sit buried in desert sand for 300 years and can still be made to work after a little maintenance. The way I see it, they're probably incredibly easy to mothball and then you just need to break out the leaf blower to blow the dust out of the fusion engine. As long as you're not in Draconis Combine territory, anyway--then you'll need several Combat Assault Technicians (or cats) to clean out all the mice that chewed up all the wiring. Next LP run a battletech RPG game where the first thing the players have to do is go to the mechbay cellar and kill some rats.
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Sep 11, 2016 18:08
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Alchenar posted:Next LP run a battletech RPG game where the first thing the players have to do is go to the mechbay cellar and kill some rats. Physical Combat Phase: BattleMaster (player) - Kicks rat (4 base + 3 movement + 1 enemy movement -2 kick = 6): rolled 4, miss! End Phase: BattleMaster (player) - Must pass a piloting test or fall (3 base + 0 missed kick = 3): rolled 2, fails! -- Falls in hex 2414 -- Suffers 8 damage to Left Torso (0/29 armor, 13/19 structure remaining)! Crit! - Critical chance in Left Torso! 2 critical hits sustained! -- MG Ammo hit! Ammo Explosion! -- SRM-6 Ammo hit! Ammo Explosion! - MG Ammo Explosion does 190 points to Left Torso (0/19 structure remaining)! damage transfers to Center Torso (0/40 armor, 0/27 structure remaining)! 'mech Destroyed!
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Sep 11, 2016 18:53
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Alchenar posted:Next LP run a battletech RPG game where the first thing the players have to do is go to the mechbay cellar and kill some rats. Next campaign: A) The 4th An Ting Legion have finally received their long-overdue shipment of replacement mechs barely a day before the new offensive. The players must take the role of the Combat Assault Technicians leading the vanguard of the regimental support staff as they race feverishly against the clock to get these dilapidated machines combat-ready in time!
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Sep 11, 2016 18:59
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PoptartsNinja posted:Don't worry about that. BattleMechs can sit buried in desert sand for 300 years and can still be made to work after a little maintenance. The way I see it, they're probably incredibly easy to mothball and then you just need to break out the leaf blower to blow the dust out of the fusion engine. They're huge machines, so it would more be a lot of people clambering all over it working through a few dozen standard checklists. Checking for wear in all the joints, myomer bundles, engine output, weapon barrels and focusing systems, weapon alignment, gyro balancing, etc., etc. edit - Which could be another reason for the low Tech:AsTech ratio. You need a lot of people just to run through all the checks, but very few who can carry out the occasional repair they find need for. goatface fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 19:02
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Narsham posted:Physical Combat Phase: So THATS what happened to my Battlemaster after the failed training mission.
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Sep 11, 2016 19:06
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RA Rx posted:Expecting Noretti to keep his heirloom Phawk alive in mission after mission in perhaps the most vicous war going on is a bit nutters (its the only mech to have been in all three deployments, and I'm guessing Jason is going to have to borrow a second Screamer now (technically third)), but for now it lives another day. The Phoenix Hawk may never die! It is Clan Demon Hawk's Spirit Animal RE: the logistics thing, it's totally true. I'm playing an "Against the Bot" mercs campaign, in MekHQ 0.3.32, and my techs are saving my bacon in regards my having enough mechs to do anything. They've managed to keep my mechs alive for two in-game years, and I've got 14 months left of a 24 months guerilla warfare contract for House Davion against House Liao, and about 1/3 of my mechs are now Vindicators (mostly -1Rs). I've only got about 3-4 of my original starting mechs left, and my Banshee (the one with the AC5 and PPC), is missing an arm, and has been for nearly a year. On the other hand both my "elite" techs managed to destroy a 45 ton mech head each, so I now need to loot more Vindicators to repair my latest -1R. I also need a side torso for my Phoenix Hawk -1D (the only original Hawk I have left from my starting complement of two of those things).
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Sep 12, 2016 10:00
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Oh right, seems I upheld your expectations (thanks to that Thundercat explosion, half of a headcap and staying alive).  Yay Noretti!^Weapons actually got worse though. Battletech weaponry has nothing on the accuracy of world war 2 weapons. RA Rx fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Sep 12, 2016 |
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Sep 12, 2016 10:05
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mcjomar posted:The Phoenix Hawk may never die! Why don't you buy another arm? Sure it'd take a while to arrive but better to have it than not. As for elite techs destroying the heads, you need to work your way up from green to elite when repairing things. If a tech fails a repair roll on a thing, then only a tech of higher level can attempt to repair it. If you get to elite and they fail, it's irreparable. So for delicate components you should also make liberal use of the repair time multipliers; if you spend 4x as much time as necessary on a task, you get -3 to the TN.
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Sep 12, 2016 11:12
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Yeah, I tried that. Apparently my techs just like to join in on the head destruction, along with the rest of the company. Finally managed to convince one to fix the head on the Vindicator though. RE: the parts, for some reason, no parts are available to my unit at all. I'm not sure how to change that in MekHQ - I assumed this was standard for a Guerilla Warfare contract? I have no parts available to me? I'm living off the salvage I can scrape off the battlefield - a lot of my armour supplies currently come from wrecked Liao vehicles, for example, and my supply line on LRM5s and ammo for such is basically whatever vehicles and wrecked Vindicators I can steal.
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Sep 12, 2016 15:07
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mcjomar posted:Yeah, I tried that. Apparently my techs just like to join in on the head destruction, along with the rest of the company. Under Against the Bot in campaign options, and there under Contract Operations, there's a checkbox for "Restrict Parts By Mission"; if that's checked it might be what's preventing you from getting new parts. Otherwise, I dunno. And yeah, this is why you buy a LOT of armor before an extended contract. Armor and ammo. Or you cherrypick your starting mechs to be all energy machines and start wondering how any mech without CASE survived the succession wars to today when they all keep exploding from the first ammo hit but :battletech:
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Sep 12, 2016 15:23
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Oh! Yeah, that's turned on alright. Makes sense though, given that it's behind enemy lines so I guess I'll leave it on. I'm resorting to scraping armour off the mechs that, objectively, I know I'll never fix or want to fix anyway, so that I have some supplies, and I guess i need to salvage more vehicles for ammo and armour also. My salvage percentage allowed is at 70% and I seem to keep it hovering at around 60% right now because of all the stuff I need to keep grabbing. Due to the recent explosion of my second wolverine (the first simply disappeared under mysterious circumstances), I've decided to completely refit the shadowhawk I recently acquired to a 2ML1PPC model with 5 jumpjets and two extra tons of armour so it's near max, plus some heatsinks to allow it to jump and fire PPCs. If it works, I'm debating whether or not to do the same to my Griffin. My army of Vindicators continues to grow, although I really need to get the MGs off my -1X before it kills itself.
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Sep 13, 2016 08:39
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mcjomar posted:Oh! Yeah, that's turned on alright. What year are you in? I have more wolverines than I can shake a stick at, they are seemingly everywhere. Mostly 6M and 6R.
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Sep 13, 2016 09:05
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Olothreutes posted:What year are you in? I have more wolverines than I can shake a stick at, they are seemingly everywhere. Mostly 6M and 6R. Opponent will also dictate forces met- I believe Marik has a love of Wolverines, while Vindicators are to Liao what Panthers and Dragons are to Kurita. So it makes sense he's facing a ton of Vindis. Also, I believe the Vindicator is one the the CC's entirely homegrown, military pride mechs? Like, the sort of in-universe iconic CC mech, to the point where it's quite difficult to find any for sale or parts for them anywhere because only they make them. Or did my mind just make that up?
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Sep 13, 2016 10:38
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It's less national pride and more a giant hunk of poo poo that no one wants (most models have disfunctional ejection systems, among other problems). Capcon's stuck with them because they retooled a bunch of factories for them back when they could still do that.
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Sep 13, 2016 10:48
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No that's pretty much right I think. I'm running in year 3001 right now, just hit december. I've now had a turn of good luck, so I'm up to about 15 mechs (two of which are light, so given my current luck with light mechs, they'll probably die soon). My next two missions are a star league salvage run, me vs an enemy highlander, and a defence mission which has a lot of vehicles, plus a wolverine and shadowhawk. I intend to rip the right leg off one, and the head off the other, as I have replacement parts for those bits. Not sure how I'll salvage the highlander - I need spares for my own Highlander that I won in a previous contract thanks to critting the gyro early. E:Chalk up another Highlander captured by crippling the gyro. The refit will take a couple months though, and I don't have any spare PPCs left. mcjomar fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Sep 13, 2016 |
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Sep 13, 2016 10:50
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dis astranagant posted:It's less national pride and more a giant hunk of poo poo that no one wants (most models have disfunctional ejection systems, among other problems). Capcon's stuck with them because they retooled a bunch of factories for them back when they could still do that. "The Vindicator is one of the most well known Capellan Confederation BattleMechs. This workhorse of the CCAF was built in 2826 between the First and Second Succession War to maximize the effectiveness of the Confederation's production capabilities and fulfill as many roles as possible. Designed by committee, the Vindicator's "jack-of-all-trades" nature means it does not excel in any one role but fulfills them adequately. With almost all of its components produced on Capella, the Vindicator is also cheap, easy to mass produce, and quick to repair with a ready supply of spare parts." Doesn't sound like a piece of poo poo that they actively dislike and only use because they have to to me. And apparently they charge a huge markup to any outside parties who want to buy them, which I don't feel like you'd do if you just wanted to sell them for a profit because they're poo poo. Now, meta-wise, yeah it's not a good unit. But neither is the Shadow Hawk and in-universe everyone thinks it's amazing. mcjomar posted:No that's pretty much right I think. You could just set the Highlander to Salvage in the repair bay and strip it entirely for parts for your existing one. Also, a handy general tip- every point in Tactics the lance leader has nets you a reroll on one of a mission's parameters, such as weather, light level, or terrain. If you're severely outnumbered, you can try rerolling to get night conditions and use your better tactical abilities to take the enemy apart piecemeal since darkness limits LoS.
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Sep 13, 2016 11:09
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Yeah, I've found that actually ends up being helpful. Sort of - my units with jumpjets do fantastic in night missions, for the most part. But I've got a few that lack the ability to throw themselves through the air on engine plasma (or however it's supposed to work), so those ones tend to be largely single defensive point mechs. RE: the Highlander, I figured I'd rather have two fully working assault mechs, and when one inevitably dies (unless I play smart, in which case it won't happen), it'll provide some parts to the other. They both have full CASE as well, so at least that way I'll still be able to salvage most of the mech if the inevitable happens. So Highlander 2 will be getting a large laser for the "big gun", and some extra medium lasers and heatsinks to offset everything.
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Sep 13, 2016 11:44
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mcjomar posted:Yeah, I've found that actually ends up being helpful. Sort of - my units with jumpjets do fantastic in night missions, for the most part. But I've got a few that lack the ability to throw themselves through the air on engine plasma (or however it's supposed to work), so those ones tend to be largely single defensive point mechs. Since it's before 3050, keep in mind your employer is going to want to keep the SL highlander and offer to trade you a normal 3025-era assault mech for it. If you keep the SL mech, it's a contract breech which could effect the overall success of the contract. But it's only like 3 points off the mission points total which shouldn't be a huge deal.
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Sep 13, 2016 13:26
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What's the Davion equivalent to the Dragon and Vindicator in the "poo poo but widely used by one faction mech that you blow up in droves to get to feel awesome"?
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Sep 13, 2016 13:32
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